Should I NEVER discard private keys even after spent?

[DrBitcoin]

About 6 months ago, I sent 2 Bitcoins from a paper wallet to Coinbase and sold the two Bitcoins for $1000 a piece.  I believe I discarded the paper wallet with the private keys on it because the wallet was spent.

If I had access to those private keys, would I have access to those Bitcoin Cash and all future forks?

Also...is this an argument to NEVER discard private keys even if the wallet is empty?

[Grrizz]

No, you would only get BCH from those keys if there was BTC in them at the time of the fork.

[BitcoinBarrel]

I try to save all mine, you never know. There may be a small amount of satoshis left in your addresses that could be worth $50 one day.

[bryant.coleman]

You will get Bitcoin Cash coins only of you had owned Bitcoin on August 1. Since you spent your coins 6 months back, and the balance in your wallet was zero on August 1, you don't qualify for the free Bitcoin Cash Airdrop. BTW, isn't it possible to generate the private keys again? Were you using an online wallet, such as the one from Blockchain.info?

[surix]

I also try my best to keep all of them, especially one day when you discover some alt-coin's air drop too late and it may save you some money (true story... Like CLAM coin)

[kidoseagle0312]

About 6 months ago, I sent 2 Bitcoins from a paper wallet to Coinbase and sold the two Bitcoins for $1000 a piece.  I believe I discarded the paper wallet with the private keys on it because the wallet was spent.

If I had access to those private keys, would I have access to those Bitcoin Cash and all future forks?

Also...is this an argument to NEVER discard private keys even if the wallet is empty?

Well, I guess much better for you to save the private key still, if you know to yourself that you're gonna use it someday. Unless you're not gonna use it, I think that would be fine if you discard it.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

sold the two Bitcoins for $1000 a piece

Sorry for your loss.  Nah, why bother keeping those keys?  I've deleted wallets & private keys before with no regrets and they wouldn't have helped with bcc anyway, as was pointed out.

No harm in doing it though, if it's convenient for you.

[gentlemand]

In this particular case it doesn't matter, but it is extremely sensible to hang on to them.

At some point in the future you may need to prove you had control over those coins at that point to please the tax man or whatever. The only way you can prove it is with those private keys.

I've dug out all of the ones I could possibly find and they're stored away in a history file.

[novhitadaloma]

I think it does not matter if you do not use that account anymore. But remember, something that has been sold can not be taken anymore.

[bamboylee]

It is just unsafe if you store all your private keys especially if you store it digitally. You might mix empty with have content and if it gets hack, you lose your bitcoin. I destroy empty privates keys of empty addresses since I create new address for new transactions.

[stromae]

Every single chain split require you to have bitcoin when the chain split happen, you can't have BCH or other coins from chain split result if you already send it to different address which isn't yours. Also, i think there's no problem to discard private key as long as you make sure no one will send bitcoin to you with that address

Appeciate for the answer because I also wondered this topic since I did the same thing 4 months ago, I gave my paper wallet to another person and he spent it instantly. Does that mean, the guy spent my wallet, has the access to the bitcoin cash?

[Grrizz]

Every single chain split require you to have bitcoin when the chain split happen, you can't have BCH or other coins from chain split result if you already send it to different address which isn't yours. Also, i think there's no problem to discard private key as long as you make sure no one will send bitcoin to you with that address

Appeciate for the answer because I also wondered this topic since I did the same thing 4 months ago, I gave my paper wallet to another person and he spent it instantly. Does that mean, the guy spent my wallet, has the access to the bitcoin cash?

Think of a fork as creating two chains with a shared history up to the point where the fork happened, if you had 1BTC in a address at the time of the fork you would have 1BTC on one chain and 1BCH on the other in that address after the fork because that address would be valid on both chains. While the chains have a shared history, after the fork they are effectivly two seperate chains all the way back to the first block.

Now if you spent that 1BTC before the fork that address would be empty, as such after the fork it would still be empty on both chains. The credit on the new chain is not from having BTC in an address at any time before the fork or else you could send your 1BTC from one address to the next and multiply your BCH to infinity. If however the other guy didn't spend all of the BTC in that address and there was some left over during the fork that address would have an equal amount of BCH on the new chain after the fork but arguably at that point it wouldn't be yours anyway because you weren't the holder of the BTC and the BCH goes to the holder of each address (or specifically its private key).

[webtricks]

Every single chain split require you to have bitcoin when the chain split happen, you can't have BCH or other coins from chain split result if you already send it to different address which isn't yours. Also, i think there's no problem to discard private key as long as you make sure no one will send bitcoin to you with that address

Appeciate for the answer because I also wondered this topic since I did the same thing 4 months ago, I gave my paper wallet to another person and he spent it instantly. Does that mean, the guy spent my wallet, has the access to the bitcoin cash?

Actually your case is 100% similar to what OP asked. You should not confuse yourself with paper wallet. It is nothing but a paper containing btc address and its pvt keys. So when you gave paper wallet to that person, you actually gave btc address containing BTC. Now when he spent those BTC, he actually transferred BTC from address on paper wallet to some external wallet address, say X.
Now coming to BCH. The cut-off date for BCH was Aug 1. If those BTC remained on X address on Aug 1, then the owner of that address (person having pvt keys or password in case of web wallet) will have equivalent BCH.  But if BTC moved further from X to say Y and so on before Aug 1, BCH will be paid to one having BTC on Aug 1.

[BitcoinHodler]

for not only this fork (bitcoin cash) but also for any other future fork or even any future airdrop coins that happen to be giving away some coins for free to bitcoin hodlers, you will only need coins at a specific block height.

this means if you want those free coins you should only keep your empty private keys for a little while.

for example the longest chain is at height 481420 as of writing this. if an air drop happens in this week it won't be at a block height 481200! instead it will be at 481500 for example. so if you spend your coins today, you can discard the private key in a week for example.

i can't think of any other reason for keeping them for any longer though

[ahmedjamal1998]

If I had access to those private keys, would I have access to those Bitcoin Cash and all future forks?

You'd receive BitcoinCash or any other future forks only if that address had bitcoins in it. But since it was empty it would get you nothing.
BCH was given to people with addresses which HAD balance in bitcoins and they were given the exact same amount in BCH.

If you're talking generally. I guess why dispose of it? Like maybe one day someone will send you money by mistake lol.

[erre]

About 6 months ago, I sent 2 Bitcoins from a paper wallet to Coinbase and sold the two Bitcoins for $1000 a piece.  I believe I discarded the paper wallet with the private keys on it because the wallet was spent.

If I had access to those private keys, would I have access to those Bitcoin Cash and all future forks?

Also...is this an argument to NEVER discard private keys even if the wallet is empty?

When the wallet is empty, you can discard them with no remorse. Do in the future someone will launch a coin such airdrop to all addresses.... meh, directory.io

[unamis76]

Yes, always keep private keys, even if empty.

The person who originally sent the broken transactions deleted his wallet

Sigh... why delete a wallet instead of moving it aside and keeping the old copy just in case?  You should never delete a wallet.

The man said it himself

[gentlemand]

When the wallet is empty, you can discard them with no remorse. Do in the future someone will launch a coin such airdrop to all addresses.... meh, directory.io

If you can find yourself on directory.io it's safe to say that you won't have any coins or any forktastic windfalls either to play with.

I don't get this attitude. You might need to prove a chain of custody some day. It's no hassle to keep the private keys.

[countryfree]

At some point in the future you may need to prove you had control over those coins at that point to please the tax man or whatever. The only way you can prove it is with those private keys.

Here's the correct answer. This data isn't important as of today, but someday if you have to comply with some AML or KYC regulation, it may be useful to prove the origin of your funds.

[lonelygrimm]

it depends what purpose of the wallet you created, is it for less or many people, if you using it for selling something there is a risk that you accidentally give the wallet address to your customer/friend. And if you ask, can you receive future airdrop, if you leave your wallet empty of course you got empty LOL